The Madras High Court on Wednesday (November 13, 2024) cleared the decks for the release of actors Suriya, Bobby Deol, and Disha Patani-starrer Kanguvaon Thursday (November 14, 2024) by modifying an order passed by it on Monday (November 11, 2024) demanding the deposit of ₹20 crore by Wednesday midnight from its producer, K.E. Gnanavelraja.
A Division Bench of Justices G. Jayachandran and C.V. Karthikeyan disposed of a modification application filed by Studio Green Films Private Limited after recording its submission that it had deposited ₹6.41 crore on Wednesday (November 13, 2024) and tha would deposit another ₹3.75 crore by December 12.
Senior counsel P.S. Raman, assisted by Niranjan Rajagopalan, told the court that the producer had so far deposited a total amount of ₹10.35 crore, which worked out to the principal amount, with the Official Assignee of the High Court, and that only the interest portion had to be discharged.
It was also reported that the producer was willing to opt for a one-time settlement, after the release of the movie in order to discharge his liability completely and requested the court to modify its order to deposit ₹20 crore by Wednesday (November 13, 2024) night since it was too onerous and incapable of being complied with.
The court was told that the movie had been produced by obtaining loans from various sources and that it would be allowed to be released only on discharging some of those liabilities, and in such circumstances, it would be difficult for the producer to deposit another huge sum of ₹20 crore by Wednesday (November 13, 2024) midnight.
Mr. Gnanavelraja’s father and Studio Green’s partner, V.K. Eswaran, filed an affidavit in support of the modification application, stating that the financial success of the movie would get adversely affected if it did not get released on Thursday (November 14, 2024) as scheduled, and it would not help the official assignee too in recovering the dues.
The issue related to an agreement entered between Mr. Gnanavelraja and infamous businessman Arjunlal Sunderdas (since dead) in 2011 for co-producing a movie by investing ₹40 crore each. As per the agreement, the businessman had invested ₹12.85 crore before backing off from the project.
Subsequently, in 2014, the High Court declared Arjunlal Sunderdas as an insolvent and directed the Official Assignee to take stock of all his assets and liabilities so that hundreds of people who had deposited money in his real estate and finance companies could be repaid their dues.
While conducting an assessment as directed by the court, the Official Assignee found that Mr. Gnanavelraja had to repay ₹10.35 crore to the insolvent, and therefore, filed an application before the High Court in 2016 seeking a direction to him to repay the amount with 18% interest from 2013.
The Division Bench allowed the application in 2019 and directed the producer to repay the entire liability of ₹10.35 crore with interest to the credit of the Official Assignee. Since then, the Official Assignee had been taking steps to recover the dues in parts before every release of a movie produced by Studio Green.
Published - November 13, 2024 08:36 pm IST
